The Life and Times of a Pirate's Child
by LyingUnder-BlueMoons
Summary: A story set in limbo between the first and second movies no spoilers!, Elizabeth comes to Jack in her time of need, and spends the rest of her short life hiding the secret from Will...
1. Conception

**AN-So, guys, I'm working on a Pirates of the Caribbean story. It doesn't have any spoilers from the second movie, so never fear if you haven't seen it yet. _(You should!) _-Ahem- Yes, anyway, the story's set in a kind of limbo...what would have happened if Jack had been pardoned and had lived in Port Royal after the conclusion of the first movie.**

"I love you," Captain Jack Sparrow whispered in the ear of his lover, of his friend. He couldn't suppress a smile as he realized that, for the first time in his life, he meant it. He loved her.

"I love you too, Cap'in," his lover murmured back, bringing her foul Captain closer to her. She kissed the pirate fiercely, simply because she could. Because he was hers. _Her_ good man.

Jack Sparrow lay with her for a long time that night, knowing that she was a liar. Knowing that what she claimed to feel for him was just a side effect of being a spurned lover. Knowing that she was an honest one, and an honest one who was doing something incredibly..._stupid.

* * *

_

Jack Sparrow knew that what had happened would not last. So when he woke the next morning, alone, he was somehow not surprised. Not in the slightest.

Nor was he the least bit shocked to see Elizabeth back with her Will Turner within the week. She had apologized for whatever it was she had done wrong, promised she would die without him, and sworn that there was no one else for her.

The two were married before the month came to a close.

Captain Sparrow did not attend the ceremony as the free man he was, as requested by the ever-trusting William, but opted instead to lurk in the shadows and sigh, to mourn the loss of the only love he'd ever known, the only love he felt he ever _would _know.

He was wrong. Quite wrong because, nine months later, Elizabeth bore to Will Jack's second love.

On December the fifth, Elizabeth Turner presented her husband with a pirate's child.


	2. Deception

**AN-So here's the second bit. As a little heads-up, I might end up working "Half Jack" by The Dresden Dolls into the story a little while later, but I'm not sure. That song _is_ where the idea for the story came from, but whether or not I'll write the actual lyrics into the story is still up in the air. **

**As you were! **

No one knew, of course. No one, that is, except for the baby's true parents. When the child was but a month old, Elizabeth arranged a meeting with Captain Sparrow, sub rosa, in the dead of night. Sarah accompanied her.

"I know she is not Will's," Elizabeth admitted, the first words exchanged between the parents in almost a year. "I missed…I was…irregular, directly after…following…when Will and I went through our rough spot," she sputtered awkwardly. "That…and she already has your nose, God help her."

Jack may or may not have heard what Elizabeth had to say. He couldn't pry his eyes away from the infant for even a second. He knew he was looking at his baby. His love. Jack new he was experiencing love, gazing at-

"My child. My daughter."

Elizabeth failed to repress a smile. "Hold her, Jack," she whispered, extending the sleeping bundle. As he took the child in his arms, she began to stir, but did not cry when she set her brown doe eyes upon her father for the first time. Instead, she cooed contentedly.

"My child. My Sarah," he whispered again, feeling tears run down his cheeks. Tears? Impossible. Captain Jack Sparrow didn't cry.

But oh, for his love he did.

"Jack," Elizabeth interjected softly, "I think you know what I'm going to ask of you."

Sparrow shook his head, held his creation closer, and whispered, "No, don't ask, my _God_ please don't ask this of me…" Elizabeth's eyes filled with tears as well.

"You can't ever be her father, Jack. You mustn't. Will must be her father, and it can only make it easier if you tell yourself that now. Will Turner is her father. She is Sarah Turner."

Jack continued to shake his head, taking an unconsciously step back or two. "No, no no! I am her father! _I am her father!_"

"Jack!" Elizabeth exclaimed, snatching the child away. "Jack…oh, Jack, goodbye!" She cried, and then turned and fled.

Captain Jack Sparrow was left shaking his head, tears flowing, as the only two women that had ever mattered ran from him.


	3. Reception

It was sixteen years later that Sarah Turner lost her mother and her stand in father. Sixteen years later that she gained her true father. Sixteen long years, full of guilt that wracked Elizabeth constantly, the face of her child a constant reminder that to her that she had knowingly torn apart a mans heart.

Sixteen years that eventually brought Elizabeth, without warning, over the edge of a cliff one icy December morning. December the fourth, in fact.

Captain Jack was, of course, the first person Will messaged about her death. Just because they had not kept contact well did not mean he shouldn't be informed of the untimely passing of one of his only true friends. Pirates didn't have many, after all.

He came straight away. When he reached the place of her service that very night, he frightened himself by laughing. Walking through the sickeningly familiar town, he laughed at the passage of sixteen years, laughed at everything those years had held. He laughed until he cried, then he discontinued the laughter directly.

Captain Jack Sparrow didn't cry. Especially not for the only woman who had ever broken his heart.

It was when he entered the funeral service, however, that any and all humor died from his lips.

He recognized hi daughter straight away. She had grown into a beautiful woman over the fateful years, looking surprisingly like Jack himself. Sarah carried Sparrow's nose, as well as his eyes, but possessed solely her mother's smile. Also, Sarah worked with Elizabeth's hands. Dainty but durable, she obviously carried her mothers' spirit and determination, as well.

Jack was still staring when a bleary-eyed Will strode up to him and held him in the most meaningful embrace he'd ever received from a man.

"I'm so sorry," Jack announced, unsure of what else to say. He was still fixated on his daughter.

"Thank you so much for coming, Jack," Will managed. "You meant so much to Elizabeth." As her name passed his lips, the man broke into a fresh bout of weeping. Jack held him until the tears lessened, and Will finally followed his gaze.

"Oh, forgive me," he apologized. "I've neglected to introduce you to my beautiful daughter." Sparrow flinched at the words, but Will failed to notice. He waved her over to them, then put his hand on her shoulder and proudly introduced, "Jack, this is my daughter, Sarah."

Before he had a chance to reply, Sarah curtsied and spoke. "It's wonderful to meet you, Captain Sparrow, it truly is. My mother spoke highly of you quite often."

Even more curious than the fact that Elizabeth spoke of him, Jack couldn't help but notice how steadily the girl spoke of her mother. No tears fell down her tanned face; her large, piercing brown eyes remained dry for the memory of her mother.

"Oh, did she?" Jack questioned, transfixed by his daughter's ability to stand strong through such a time. He supposed much of the strength was harvested from her anger. Her anger toward her mother for leaving her at her most impressionable and needful age.

"Yes, loads of stories about your adventures. The one I'm most fond of has to be when you rode those sea turtles! It was so clever, how you managed rope!" Sarah's cheeks reddened, and Sparrow mentally noted that his daughter blushed easily. How much he could learn about his child in such a short meeting!

"Jack," Will interjected, "it's almost time to remove Eliz - the casket. Would you be willing to help carry it?"

"I'd be honored to," Jack replied honestly and, taking a deep breath, he reached out and laid his hand upon Sarah's shoulder. "It was a pleasure…meeting you, milady," he managed, slightly in shock. For the first time in sixteen years, Captain Jack Sparrow

felt love. He was touching love.

"And you, Captain Sparrow," Sarah replied, turning to meet with the rest of her family.

"Please," he asked of her as she departed, "call me Jack." She grinned, fully displaying Elizabeth's smile.

"Until next time then, Jack," she said, bowing out with a little nod. Jack couldn't suppress a smile, either, despite the occasion. She was his daughter.


	4. Exposure

Later that evening, the service was followed with a deathly solemn dinner at the Turner residence. Sarah was the chattiest of them all, smiling and laughing at memories of the antics Elizabeth had performed in life. Will excused himself more than once for various reasons, all which included taking his napkin with him and coming back considerably blotchier.

At about 10 o'clock, Ms. Turner excused herself and retired for the night. Jack gave her a proper goodnight, feeling an indescribable amount of jealousy roar to life inside him as she kissed Will goodnight and called him 'father.'

It was when she swaggered away to her bedroom, truly a pirate swagger, that it became fully known to Jack that his lover was dead. Gone, and by her own hand. He felt the tears threaten again, and again he swallowed them down. He tried to replace sadness with anger, as Sarah had seemed to do. It should have been easy; sixteen years of having his child handed to his lovers' husband should have been enough to make his blood boil. Still, he came up empty.

Bugger.

As he observed Will sitting in silence, there was but one thing he could think of that would calm him. One thing that would relieve him.

"Will…William, I must tell you something."

Will sniffed. "Anything, Jack. You can tell me anything." The Captain flinched at the sincerity hidden in the words and almost regretted what he was about to do.

Almost.

"There was…something Elizabeth never told you, Will. Something I need to tell you now."

Will tried to produce a smile, but it died on his lips. "I don't think I can talk about her right now, Jack."

"You don't have a choice, Mate!" Sparrow exclaimed, standing abruptly. Will's expression changed, taking on a look that was more worry than sorrow.

"What, then?" he practically begged. "What is it?"

Jack rubbed his forehead and sat back down. Pirate though he was, he had not the emptiness in his soul to know how to go about breaking such news.

"Almost seventeen years ago…the argument you and Elizabeth had just before your marriage. You recall, savvy?"

Will nodded, silent.

"During that short time of dispute between the two of you…times and circumstances being what they were…in her confusion, dear Elizabeth came to me…" It physically pained him to call the passion she had pretended mere confusion, thought he knew it well to be.

"What is it you're trying to say, Jack?" Will asked, beginning to sound anxious.

"Elizabeth came to me, Mate, and we…we _were_ together one night. The night before the two of you made up, Elizabeth and I were together."

Red flooded Will's cheeks as the pure honesty in Jack's eyes drove the message home.

"_Why_?" he whispered, stunned. "_Why _would you choose _now _to tell me this? For Gods sake, Jack, say _something_!"

"Don't you get it, Will?" Jack asked too loudly. "Sarah! Sarah is-"

"Don't you _dare_!" It was Will's turn to jump up, and he executed the motion with quite a bit of force. "Don't you play with me, Jack Sparrow! I won't stand for it!"

"Why would I lie to you about this one the eve of your brides' funeral, William?" Jack questioned, standing as well. "I wouldn't! Sarah is my _daughter_!"

The words danced in his mouth like a sweet flavor, playing with his senses and roaring into the world heavy as a cannon shot. Finally, it was real. After sixteen years of harboring the beautiful truth to himself, _it was real._

The majesty of the realization, however, was soon swept away by the point of a sword against his throat.

"No!" Will yelled, over his shock and now knee-deep in anger. "No! Sarah is _my _daughter, Elizabeth's and my own!" But even as he said it, it was clear the words were spoken to convince himself. He had crossed the line; he now fought for his sanity rather than the truth.

Jack began to shout something back, but they were both silenced by a ruffling of sleep-skirts at the doorway.

"Are we having a problem, gentleman?" Sarah asked, her eyes wide, her voice sweet.

* * *

**AN- W00t for cliffhangers? I'd love to know what you think so far:D  
**


	5. Remembrance

"Sarah," Will instructed, not able to raise his voice enough to sound authoritative, "go back to your room. Jack was just…just leaving."

She gave a curt nod of obedience to her father but, as she turned to leave the room, she shot a glance at Jack, also. A glance he knew all too well. A glance he'd been given every day for the first few months of a child's life sixteen years ago. It meant they shared a secret.

It meant she knew.

The brief moment of connection was lost, however, as Sarah disappeared from the doorframe and Will's blade pressed harder into his throat.

"Get out," Will hissed. "Get out of my home, Sparrow, and stay away from my life."

Without missing a beat, Jack unsheathed his sword from his waist, held it against Will's and countered, "I'm afraid I just can't do that, Mate."

**AN-Short, sweet and to the point. Don't touch that dial, there's more to come!  
**


	6. Bittersweet Defeat

**AN-Here we are, kiddies, the next installment. Yay! Enjoy :) **

"Jack Sparrow, do not try me," Will threatened, once again crossing blades with the pirate who had, from the moment they met, proceeded to turn his world upside down.

"William Turner, Sarah is my daughter. She is Sarah Sparrow. I am her father. You need to-"

"_Never!_" Will promised, and lunged at the father of his child, the lover of his wife.

The fight was intense. Two grown men fighting over one badly-shared toy, performing their own dance of choreographed murder. It was only when Will had Jack pinned to the floor of the dining room, the Elizabeth's china and trinkets broken all around them, that Sparrow began to worry that it was not a dispute that would be settled with both lives intact.

"I cannot let you blaspheme so against my wife," Will whispered in Jack's ear, the tip of the sword aimed directly over the pirate's heart.

"And I cannot let you rob me of the opportunity to father my child, as your wife did," Captain Jack Sparrow whispered in reply, knowing it was over.

He would never forget how Will's eyes looked so like Sarah's as they opened wide in shock when the sword entered his body, ending his life so shortly after his wife's.

Nor would he ever forget pushing his friends' body off of him, sitting up and seeing his daughter look at him with those large brown eyes. It was impossible for anyone to forget the moment the only person they love looks at them with nothing but cold hatred burning in their eyes.

He had gained his daughter, only to lose her.


	7. Redemption

"What've you done?" Sarah Sparrow whispered, staring in blank shock at her father, standing over the body of the man who had taken his place for so many years.

"Nothing! I didn't…It's not…Circumstances being what they were…He left me no choice!" Jack tried to explain, but to no avail. In they eyes of his daughter, her father had just been murdered. In her eyes of his daughter, an old family friend had just orphaned her. In her eyes…

"I hate you," Sarah whispered, eyes filling with tears. "_I hate you_…" She began to turn, to flee, but Jack caught her by the arm just in time.

"Sarah, love, please listen to me. I have so much I need to tell you, so much you need to know…"

"I heard it all, I heard enough!" she screamed, fighting against her father with all her strength. Jack shook his head at her words, knowing that the two phrases were by no means synonyms. What she may have heard was certainly not all she needed to hear. Not even close.

"Give your father one more chance," he begged. Had she known him better, Sarah would have not been able to doubt his love for her. Captain Jack Sparrow did not beg. Now, however, he hoped his plea would changer her mind, even slightly.

The look in her eyes, however, told him otherwise. Along with his nose, she carried her father's stubbornness.

"My father," she spat, knowing the truth full well, "is dead. He lay dead but a few feet from his daughter, the daughter _you_ orphaned!"

"I did not orphan you!" Jack fought back, hating the way her words, her denial, tasted in his mouth. "I'm your _father, _Sarah, please! Please, just let me be your father…" He had lost track of his argument. He was intoxicated with love for his daughter.

"So I am to believe," Sarah asked slowly, wrenching herself from his grasp, "that you are my father? That I am not William Turner's child, as I've been made to believe for sixteen years?"

Slightly stunned by her sudden change in disposition, Jack just nodded. "Erm…yes. That'd be lovely, actually."

"Well I'm afraid I can't do that, Mate." Before he knew what was happening, William Turner's blade was once again positioned against his throat, and a sinister smile was dancing across his daughter's lips.

* * *

**AN-I'm _sorry_ for A) Not posting for a while, and B) Keeping the chapters so short. The story _is _done, however, so I'll be posting the remainder of the chapters by the end of the night.**

**Carry on! **


	8. Crossing Blades

"Will clearly found it necessary to teach you a thing or two about his trade," Jack noticed, faltering under his daughter's hateful glare.

"His name does not deserve to pass your lips," Sarah spat, applying more force to the blade against his neck. "He was a good man. You are _filth_."

As he felt blood begin to trickle down his neck, Captain Jack Sparrow no longer doubted his daughter's ability to kill him where he stood. It was with that trickle of blood that he did what he never could have imagined he'd do.

Jack Sparrow drew his sword against his child.


	9. Spillage

Sarah's shock at her father's retaliation lasted no longer than a brief second. Thought Jack stood in place, sword to sword, she proceeded to start the fight.

It was while she danced as her father had danced only moments before that Sarah Sparrow began to cry, spilling her heart to her father.

"I'm dead because of you!" she screamed, fighting remarkably well for someone whose eyes were producing torrential floods. "Half of me is underwater because of you! You gave me to my mother…sent her away…you drover her to the bottom of the ocean!"

"Is that what you think?" Captain Sparrow yelled back, worrying that the girl had unchangeable views. "You think I abandoned her? Abandoned you?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Sarah asked, heaving a dry laugh. "You only come back after she's gone, right? _Coward!_"

No one called Jack Sparrow a coward.

"No! No, Elizabeth wouldn't let me anywhere near you! No daughter of hers would be known as a bastard, never mind a pirate's child! I _loved_ you, Sarah, from the moment your mother told me you were mine!

Another fake laugh, followed by more of her mother's dry humor. "Wonderful! So not only was my mother a whore, she also lied to my fath-to me my entire life!"

" Elizabeth was _not_ a whore!" Jack defended, furious. No matter what she had done to him, he still loved her. He couldn't help it. "She was hurt, spurned, confused. She was naïveté, as worldly as she might have considered herself to be."

"Even so," Sarah shot back, panting now, "she lied to me. About my _father!_ Wonderful parents I had, really. I'm a cross between two evils. Not much of an enviable lot, is it?"

With that, she held her father's gaze for the longest moment either of them had ever experienced. Then, without warning, Sarah threw down her sword and fled the room. Captain Jack was, again, watching the love of his life run from him.

* * *

**AN-So, it's not gonna be posted tonight. My apologies forever...you'll have it tomorrow, I promise.**


	10. Purification

After taking a moment to gather himself, Sparrow lay his own sword down and, not allowing himself another look at will, followed his daughter from the room.

Though the house was of a considerable size, finding Sarah was simple. Her sobs resonated throughout the house, working as well as a trail of bread crumbs to lead father to child.

When he reached the washroom door he could hear bathwater from earlier in the evening, freezing cold now, splashing.

"Sarah?" he called tentatively, rapping his knuckles against the door. "Sarah, what are you-"

"_Washing you out of me!_" she screamed in reply, and he swung the door open to reveal a girl come tragically undone, scrubbing vigorously at her flesh in a desperate attempt to get the Jack part _out. _

Without saying a word, Jack dove at the sopping mess on the floor and wrapped his arms around the shivering figure. To his shock, instead of fighting him, Sarah slumped in his arms and proceeded to sob. She cried for a long time, rocking back and forth in her fathers' arms, rocking until she had exhausted herself. Until she slept.

She slept as if her mother were not dead. She slept as if them man she addressed as 'father' did not lay dead, murdered in her own house, by the man who was truly her father. She slept as if all the world were her cradle.

She slept, Captain Sparrow decided, as an innocent.

* * *

**AN-One chapter left, kids! This** _will _**be posted directly, and you can take me to the bank on that. It's a fair bit longer than the others have been lately, so I really hope you enjoy!**  



	11. Confluence

It was Sarah stirring in his arms that woke Jack Sparrow from his slumber.

"Elizabeth?" he murmured, struggling to make sense of the world through his sleep-filled eyes.

"Elizabeth is dead, as is Will," Sarah replied, focusing her mind upon their situation. "He is downstairs, left where you…" Amazingly, her eyes softened. "Where he died."

Jack nodded, remembering. "Yes," he agreed. "Where he died."

Sarah Sparrow stood, stumbling awkwardly after a long night on an unfamiliar bed; the floor of the bathroom, wrapped in a strong man's arms. Her father's arms.

"You must leave," she instructed, towering over him at her full 5'6" as he remained on the ground, blinking up at her in the early morning sun.

"_Excuse_ me?" he asked. "Surely I'm not hearing correctly. I've just found you. Just reclaimed you, in a sense. And now I'm expected to prance off happily, without you?" He laughed heartily. "Not gonna happen, love. Sorry."

"Firstly," Sarah announced in Elizabeth's voice, "I am no ones property to be reclaimed." Jack nodded; fair enough. "Secondly, in case you don't remember, you've recently killed the son-in-law of the Governor. Pardon or not, that isn't a crime the government would be interested in letting their least favorite pirate slide on, savvy?"

In spite of himself, Captain Jack smirked. She was his daughter.

Helping her father off the floor, Sarah gave him a long look and, to Jack's surprise, grabbed his hand and led him through the house, avoiding the dining room. When they reached the main hall, she dropped his hand and whispered, "You must leave, for your safety."

"I can't do that," Jack replied, standing his ground.

"Then you must leave," Sarah begged, "for my happiness." To his look of confusion she could only reply, "I could never be happy if I knew all three of my parents were dead. If I knew my father was dead."

"As tears began to fill her eyes once again, Sparrow grabbed both her hands in his own and made her an offer. "Come with me."

"Wha-what?"

"Come with me! Together, we'd be amazing! I'll make a pirate out of you yet, girl..." He stopped speaking with the shaking of her head.

"My life," she explained, spreading her arms out as a visual, "my responsabilities are here. My life is _this_. I'm not made like you are, Jack."

"No, I suppose you're not," Jack replied, smiling sadly. The smile, however, was for her mother, who had so wrongly believed the same thing. "Well, then I'll stay here with you then, won't I?"

"You'll be killed!" Sarah objected. "I may not be made that way, Father, but you are."

"Sarah, I can't just-" He stopped, stunned. "What did you say?"

A tear slipped down her cheek, lonely but hopeful. "I _will_ see you again. But please...please, leave."

He opened his mouth to protest, but found taht he could not deny the tears of his daughter, despite what his own will might consist of. Instead, he took hs daughter's hand, pressed his lips to it and promised, "Until later, than, Ms. Sparrow."

"Please," she whispered, near a breakdown, "call me Sarah."

"Until later, than, Sarah. Oh, and other thing..."

She looked at him, wondering what more he could possibly have to reveal to her.

"Happy birthday, daughter."

Sarah Elizabeth Sparrow smiled through her tears as her father tipped his hat, wiped away a forbidden tear of his own, and gently closed the door behind him to her whisper; "Run, Jack, run."

Still smiling, she unconsiously rubbed her nose. His nose. They would meet again.

* * *

**AN-Tada! That's all of it, kiddies...I really had fun writing it, I hope you guys had as much fun reading it. I did end up using some lyics from "Half Jack," by the Dresden Dolls, so I think I'm gonna post the lyrics as a next chapter, but this is it for the story. Thank you for reading!**  



	12. Half Jack, The Dresden Dolls

_the dresden dolls_  
half jack

**half underwater  
**i'm half my mother's daughter  
a fraction's left up to dispute  
the whole collection  
half off the price they're asking  
in the halfway house of ill repute

half accidental  
half pain full instrumental  
i have a lot to think about  
you think they're joking?  
you have to go provoke him...  
i guess it's high time you found out

it's half biology and half corrective surgery gone wrong  
you'll notice something funny if you hang around here for too  
long ago in some black hole before they had these pills to take it back  
i'm half jill  
and half jack

two halves are equal  
**a cross between two evils  
it's not an enviable lot**  
but if you listen  
you'll learn to hear the difference  
between the halfs and the half nots

and when i let him in i feel my stitches getting sicker  
i try to wash him out but like she said:the blood is thicker  
i see my mother in my face  
but only when i travel  
i run as fast as i can run  
but  
jack comes tumbling after...

and when i'm brave enough and find a clever way to kick him out  
and i'm so high not even you and all your love could bring me down  
on 83rd he never found the magic words to change this fact:  
i'm half jill  
and half jack

i'm halfway home now  
half hoping  
for a showdown  
cause i'm not big enough to house this crowd  
it might destroy me  
but i'd sacrifice my body  
**if it meant i'd get the jack part OUT**

see

jack

**run**

**jack**

**run**

jack

see

jack…

* * *

Just so you know...DISCLAIMER-I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean **or **The Dresden Dolls song, Half Jack. 


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